Heavens, no. No no no.

The subject of this article is cougar fans of Twilight. And I don't mean BYU students.
I'm going to let the article do the rest of the talking.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/16/older.twilight.fans/index.html
Okay, I lied. I'm going to talk about it. But only briefly.
Now, there is a significant difference between reading the books, liking the books, and having racy fantasies about the books and indulging them.
We talked about it in my 365 class today, just because we were all disgusted with the people who are slobbering over the New Moon premier tomorrow. It seems one girl in my class went on a date to Olive Garden, and there was a long table full of women in their mid- to late-40's, talking about Twilight . . . and they had a full-sized cardboard cuttout of Robert Pattinson (Edward) with them, talking to it as if they were having dinner with him.
I understand needing an outlet, but sometimes it gets a little excessive. No, that's a lie. The teen and twenty-something girls whose relationships are ruined because of the impossible expectations they have gained as a result of Twilight are excessive. 40- and 50- something women who become drooling, lustful fans of Twilight are just plain creepy.

I am about to be rebellious. Muaha.

Tonight, I believe our family home evening activity is going to be decorating the apartment for Christmas. Now, I know what you're saying. It's not even after Thanksgiving, right? We shouldn't even be thinking about Christmas carols yet, right? Well, let me ask you this: what would you rather celebrate, the birth of the Savior of the World, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, or some indignant Calvinists who took a boat over to the Americas and thanked the Indians for teaching them how to plant corn before promptly killing them all off with smallpox and bayonets? Hmmm? Besides, neither of them actually happened on the days we're celebrating anyways!
I'm decorating for Christmas. Now. So there.
So, I'm writing this long paper for my 314 class (see the very scrambled post before this one), and I have been under the distinct impression all semester that it was due the monday before Thanksgiving. So I was planning and drafting accordingly. Let me tell you now, I was wrong. Last Friday, my professor gave out a revised version of the syllabus with new dates on it, because she had to move the due date. It is now the Monday after Thanksgiving. But it was moved from this Wednesday, November 18. If she had not changed the due date, I would be sitting in a very unfortuante position right now. Let me tell you, I'm very, very grateful for the syllabus change.
Funny story #2: For this aforementioned 314 class, most of the class periods for the last few weeks have been cancelled, to give us extra research and writing time. This class is from 12-1 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Well, after all this time, I just barely found out that Mike's 12-1, MWF class was first block, which means it got over two or three weeks ago, and he's had a free hour since then. We've just been hanging out, eating lunch and studying on campus, not knowing the other was doing the same. Isn't that just plain ridiculous?
Oh well. I hope that makes up for my insanely confusing post about weird literary theories. 'Tis the season, after all. :) 39 days until Christmas!!!!

Do you ever get tired of the looks of vast confusion on people's faces when you try to explain your poststructuralist papers to them?

I'm actually quite impressed by Mike's ability to comprehend my rough description of Derrida's argument in Structure, Sign and Play. Although I think I spent more time talking abjection like Kristeva . . .

So yesterday in my Psychology 111 class (I know - I'm seriously in like a quarter of the class that's not Freshmen) we were discussing Freud, and we were just hitting the part about Freudian slips when someone made a comment about last week's lecture on homosexuality, and my teacher said something about the two camps, those who consider themselves "pro-tolerance," and the "rabid anti-sexuals." I will admit, I chuckled. It was quite appropriate for the times. I'm not saying I hold to Freud and think that Dr. South has some deep-seated issue, but it was pretty funny.

I have quite an affinity for Regina Spektor today. Particularly her songs "The Call" and "Samson." Also Ingrid Michaelson's "The Chain."

As you can probably tell, my thoughts are a little scrambled tonight. I'm writing two very large papers. One, for my 314 class (which is forcing me to think critically about Great Expectations . . . blegh) is on the Victorian Feminine Ideal (i.e. Coventry Patmore's "Angel in the House") and its devastating effect on our dear Miss Havisham, and I'm not particularly involved in it. It's like a glorified version of those assembly-line papers I used to write in high school. Just 15 pages longer and with more elevated vocabulary and lofty-sounding sources. The other, however, is going to be titled "Black Mothers: the Doubly-Abject." Doesn't that just sound delicious? I'm so excited! I began when we read The Feminine Mystique and Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and I started to wonder: if the constructed ideal for mothers and wives was so destructive to the psyche of middle-class white women, what could it possibly have done to black women, who already faced such impossible expectations by not only white society, but their male counterparts as well? Oh man, let me tell you. My research has been SO fun. I have a giant pile of library books on our rocking chair, and I've already invested in some of the books that I totally love and can justify buying because they were like 4 bucks on Amazon. :)

That's my life right now.

Oh! Right now I'm listening to "I want you to" by Weezer. Let's add that to the list of approved songs. Kind of off of the general mood of the others, but still appropriate, somehow.

I am very slightly incensed.

One of the most frequent things that get complained about at BYU is the high standard. When I lived in singles' wards, it was quite a common occurence to hear some guy whining about not being able to take a test in the testing center because he didn't feel like shaving, or we hear stories about the girl with pink hair who was denied service by the library employees, or the girl whose female professor told her to change into a less revealing shirt (if a male professor had done it, she'd cry "harrassment"). All of these cases? covered in the HONOR CODE. You signed it when you came, so you have absolutely no right to complain.
But this particular action is a genuinely bad move for the University, as far as I know. You see, effective January 2010, the Women's Research Institute here on campus will be dissolved, the funding for the Institute will be given to individual research projects (mainly ORCA grants, which means science--not humanities--students) and the Women's Studies minor will now be under the jurisdiction of the School of Family Life. Excuse me while I go gag for a minute.
Not that I have anything against the good 'ole SFL. There are great things that happen there, like child development and psychology and family counseling. But as an English major who is familiar with the horrible things that have happened because of unjust inequality and classifying of the feminine ideal, not to mention as a self-proclaimed feminist, I cannot stand for the message that this sends.
You see, BYU has kind of a bad rep as far as gender equality. I mean, who hasn't heard the stereotype about girls coming to get their 'MRS' degree? Heck, I'm married. Doesn't that say something?
The Women's Research Institute was created to promote Gender Studies and equality, and to help give women - LDS women in particular - a voice in the world. I mean, I believe as much as the rest of the church that a wife and mother's place is in the home, but what about as a woman? She has just as much intellectual potential as any man, and the WRI wasn't studying how to be better wives and mothers. It was studying the place of woman in the world, trying to help her find it. That's history, political science, sociology--NOT family life.
The university keeps saying things like, "this will not diminish the strength of our women's studies program" and "we are trying to strengthen the program, not save money" but even without my feminist rantings, this is a horrible PR move. Scholars all over the country have noticed, and dissolving the WRI is particularly bad in a year when race and gender issues have been boiling back to the surface again. Probably just because they want to give the money to "useful" projects like my husband's research on Osteoarthritis. Not that they're not useful, but aren't we?
There's a meeting tonight of the gender equality club on campus, called "Parity," (at 7 in 270 SWKT if anybody in Provo is reading this!) and they're going to discuss respectful protests and petitions to take to the University. I would go, but maybe it would be more in accordance with the new Women's Studies program if I went home and cleaned the bathroom. Seriously.
Sorry this sounds so angry. I'm just a little bit upset. What they're doing doesn't sound to me like "strengthening the program." They're just creating more angry feminists.

Halloween . . . more like Influenzaween . . .

We didn't exactly have Halloween at our house. We were GOING to be puzzle pieces and put a pumpkin in the window so we'd get trick-or-treaters and whatnot, but Mike was still sick. So instead, I made pizza and went to my temple shift by myself, and we ended up watching Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit and The Addams Family (the early 90's version with Angelica Huston and Raul Julia). It was quite fun.
Sunday I went to church by myself . . . but then I got to be the pianist for the primary program rehearsal. It was fun. All two of our primary kids were there, and they were so cute! There is another one, but he's been home for fear of the swine flu for the last few weeks (he's legit, not just paranoid).
Then I went home and made Chicken Divan and it was delicious. Mike's been asking for it for a few weeks now and I finally got around to making it. While we were eating, he was like, "If my mom knew that I'd been asking for broccoli, she might keel over!" But I think after he put tomatoes on his salad when we were in Seattle, there is no shock his family can't handle. :)
Probably the most amazing part of this weekend: I tried to wake up early this morning to do a bunch of homework that I remembered on Saturday but didn't want to do because a) I had a sick husband to spend time with and b) it was Halloween (that wasn't the best part). The best part was when I got up this morning and looked at my syllabi and realized the annotated bib for my 365 class is due NEXT monday, not today! I almost jumped for joy, but it was cold and I was huddling under a blanket. Life is good when your homework isn't due yet. :)
I was thinking about having a contest and having you all comment and tell me about your costumes/send pictures of them, and offering a prize for the most AWESOME costume ever, but I can't think of a prize. If you still want to send pictures or something, I might make the prize be a cameo on my next blog post or something. Maybe. I 'm just needing some Halloween entertainment. :)